Four WAC coaching wizards will face new challenges in 2013

It dawned on me the other day, while preparing for the coming college football season, that the Western Athletic Conference certainly didn’t die because of bad coaching.

Three coaches from the now-defunct WAC secured big-time jobs in the offseason. A fourth, UTSA’s Larry Coker, attracted a lot of attention at the recent Conference USA media day.

Gary Andersen won the last WAC title with the Utah State Aggies. His body of work led to his hiring at the University of Wisconsin in the Big Ten.

Both Mike MacIntyre and Sonny Dykes, meanwhile, are headed for the Pac 12.

MacIntyre, formerly of San Jose State, is preparing to start his first season at Colorado.

Dykes left Louisiana Tech and took his no-huddle spread offense to the University of California.

Coker didn’t get a new job but he did lead the Roadrunners to a winning record in UTSA’s second season.

As a result, Conference USA media was all over Coker in a session at the DFW Marriott last week.

Here’s a look back at how those four men finished up in the last season of the WAC:

Utah State (11-2, 6-0)

Andersen’s Aggies were the best and most cohesive team I saw last year.

San Jose State (11-2, 5-1)

The MacIntyre-led Spartans, just fun to watch. QB David Fales could really launch a long spiral.

Louisiana Tech (9-3, 4-2)

Dykes’ Bulldogs led the nation in scoring (51.5 points) and total offense (577.92).

UTSA (8-4, 3-3)

Coker lost to Andersen, MacIntyre and Dykes by a combined 151-68.

In spite of all that, Coker may have done as good a job as any of those three considering that UTSA played the season with only 67 athletes on scholarship.

Postcript: All four men will face major challenges in 2013.

Andersen takes his Wisconsin team to Ohio State Sept. 28. McIntyre is assuming control of a program that has won only four games the past two seasons. Dykes must host Ohio State and then play at Oregon in September.

As for Coker, he might have the toughest job of all.

He must face 12 FBS opponents, including Oklahoma State and Arizona, the most difficult schedule that I can find for any start-up program in its third season over the past two decades.